It was a good week for contract extensions. Garrett Crochet and Kristian Campbell will be with Boston into the next decade. Jackson Merrill is part of the foundation in San Diego. Ketel Marte pushed his Arizona deal through 2031 (player option pending), though he unfortunately suffered a hamstring injury on the weekend and will miss some time.
But the most surprising contract of the week dropped on Sunday. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. will be in Toronto for the long haul, after all — instead of testing next winter's market, he decided to accept a 14-year, $500 million extension with the Blue Jays. Guerrero had initially set a since-passed February deadline for negotiations, though he vowed to keep the door open if a reasonable offer came in. Apparently, 500 and 14 were the right numbers.
Inner wiring and motivation is different for every player, but it's interesting to note that Crochet (1.93 ERA), Campbell (1.143 OPS), Merrill (1.090 OPS) and Marte (.930 OPS) are all off to strong starts. Some of this production came before ink to paper, some of it after. It could be a coincidence, sure. Or maybe there's something to be said for the relief of a major negotiation being finished.
Guerrero is off to a sluggish .256/.333/.333 start, without a homer. It's silly to draw any conclusions from 10 games, of course. He'll spend the next four days taking hacks at Fenway Park, one of the best scoring environments in the world. Boston scored 18 times in the second half of Sunday's doubleheader. Maybe Guerrero's contract won't be a source of Toronto pride by the end of the deal, but there's every reason to expect him to be a star in his age-26 season. Nothing has changed.
Speaking of elite hitting environments, it looks like we have a new batter of interest in Colorado . . .
Zac Veen, OF, Rockies (17% rostered)
Colorado is off to its expected lousy start, 2-7. This is on the heels of two straight 100-loss seasons. It's been seven years since a date in the playoffs, and the Rockies were only 19th in scoring last year, despite Coors Field (of course, Colorado hitters often suffer a tax on the road, struggling to adjust to life around sea level). It's depressing to see the Colorado lineup so irrelevant.
Maybe Veen can help.
He's one of the team's key prospects, the ninth overall pick from 2020's draft. He had a respectable spring with the club (.280/.352/.460, ...
